I just drove my 300th passenger on Lyft, ask me anything

Bad Wigins wrote:

Unless you're being paid less than minimum wage, tips are pointless.

smh...

Multiple passengers have hit on me, yes. Strangely three different passengers (two female and one male) during my first two weeks driving said I looked like Ryan Reynolds. Nothing came of any of their advances however.

I applied to drive for Uber and Lyft at the same time (about six weeks ago) and Lyft approved me within two days, while Uber still has not. The Uber driver app says my application is processing still...six weeks later.

I thought driving for both would keep me busier, but at this point I have no intention of ever driving for Uber if they ever approve me, and will only drive very sparingly for Lyft from this point on.

To the Albany resident: it varies from night to night where I get most of my rides, however I usually prefer to always drive during the late night/over night/early morning shift. This way I can avoid bad traffic, and hopefully have less other drivers to compete with for fares as well.

With the recent concerts at the Times Union Center, I got some prime time pricing on fares in the downtown area on those nights. The bars in the Lark Street area and up around St. Rose are often good on nights around the weekend. If it seems slow I venture over to the Amtrak station when a train is arriving as that is almost always good for a decent fare. Taking people to work or the airport in the morning hours can happen from any number of locations.

My best ride was a wealthy businessman who was flying on a private plane from Seattle to Hartford, but due to early morning fog the plane had to land in Albany. He requested a Lyft XL (not sure why because it was just him) to take him from the airport to Hartford. I enjoyed a nice conversation with him for over two hours driving for an over $200 fare in addition to a nice cash tip.

Some areas I would prefer to avoid would include the Arbor Hill area, as well as the downtown Albany area generally south of the state plaza. Cohoes and Troy in general are pretty bad as well. However, probably at least half of my total fares are either to or from these areas I don’t like. If I avoided all these areas I would be sitting in my van in a Cumberland Farms parking lot for most of the night rather than driving.

In my last post, I mentioned my longest and one of my better trips was from Albany to Hartford, CT.

I took one younger guy to one house (in a low-rent crappy area of Albany) he ran inside came back out, then took him to another stop, where he did the same, then to a third and final stop. As if I couldn’t already guess what he was doing, he felt the need to inform me that he is a drug dealer. Then before the ride ended he also informed me that he could get me anything I needed, “including women.”

Overall the income distribution of my passengers is definitely lower class for the most part. I had the one wealthy guy mentioned above, but actually the private pilot booked the ride for him on Lyft because the wealthy businessman only had Uber on his phone and nobody was accepting the longer ride on Uber at that time of day (around 5am). It seems more well-to-do people use Uber than Lyft from what I have heard.

I have had other business people going to the airport or tran station, and middle-class people sensibly using Lyft as a way to avoid driving when out at bars or concerts at night. However, the vast majority seem to be working class and lower class people who don’t own vehicles and need Lyft to get to and from work/grocery store/doctors/wherever else they are going. Needless to say, this group of passengers hardly ever tips and the fares are crap fares to begin with for the most part.

My phone is dying now and I am away from my vehicle and any charger so I will come back to this thread later today to further answer questions.

However, to answer one, yes I do intend to get a “real” job, because I am the first to admit this is not one. This was just a fill-in for a time period before getting back to real work. That’s basically all this is good for, as well as working a few hours here and there, specifically during concerts or special events when possible, to get good fares with prime time pricing surges. That’s really the only time even worth driving for Lyft honestly.

OP, how often do your passengers make a mess of your car that isn't easily cleanable? I have about a 30 minute commute to/from work and go right by the airport so it seems reasonable I could take someone to the airport on my way in to work and on the way home since I'm going right by it anyway. Damage to the interior of my car is what I'm worried about.

YouSaidAnything wrote:

Have you noticed a difference in tipping amount between races?

I noticed tipping was quite good between the Chicago Marathon and the Baltimore Marathon. However, it was very poor between the Baltimore and the Marine Corps Marathons. Not sure why.

Have you factored in what the increased mileage will do to your car insurance?

Did you have you get more insurance to cover your passengers?

Did I leave my purse in your car??

Not Uber wrote:

Go ahead and ask me anything you like.

Have you ever sucked someone off for money?

Not Uber! wrote:

YouSaidAnything wrote:

Have you noticed a difference in tipping amount between races?

I noticed tipping was quite good between the Chicago Marathon and the Baltimore Marathon. However, it was very poor between the Baltimore and the Marine Corps Marathons. Not sure why.

8/10

Ooh ooh wrote:

Did I leave my purse in your car??

Yes sir, you did. Thank you.

How many people have thrown up or relieved themselves in your car?

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

How many people have thrown up or relieved themselves in your car?

or pleasured themselves?

I threw up out the side of my lyft on my birthday and then tipped 150 in cash. Did I overpay or was it a smart move? I kept my 5 star rating as well.

If a fare is $20 for the passenger - how much of the $20 do you get? Does the % that you get vary depending on time of day, duration of trip, or other factors?

If someone tips $2 - how much of the $2 do you get? Or do you know know the tip amount and you get $X?

Do your fares and your tips get paid to you discretely for tax purposes? Or since it's all electronically paid does it not matter whether it's a tip or not?

I do both uber and lyft in my spare time when I feel like it. I started about 3 months ago, really just to see what it was like. I think it works well as a part time/spare time type thing, but less well as a full time gig. Some comments and observations:

The great thing about it is being able to do it whenever you want. If you do this as a full time job you basically lose that aspect (because you can't just do it whenever you want, you have to always be doing it or at least do it at times when you may not want to, just like a normal job).

Over 3 months I make about $18 - 20 per hour. That's "app on to app off" not just time when you're picking up and driving passengers. I started just with Lyft (simply because that's what I used as a passenger) then added uber a few weeks later. Just doing Lyft gave me about $15 per hour. Running both apps at the same time means I'm rarely waiting more than 5 minutes for a ride.

I drive some evenings after work, and weekend afternoons if I have nothing going on. Usually 2 hours in the evening ($30 - $50 bucks or so), and max 5 hours per day on the weekend ($80 - $120). It gets really old after 5 hours.

Gas was about 15% - 18% of total earned when I started, but that was me stupidly driving around even when I had no passengers (chasing rides). Now I just drive a block away from my last dropoff (so I don't creep the previous passenger out) and wait. It's about 10 - 12% now. I usually get $250 out of a tank, which runs about $25 - $29 for my little ford fiesta. That's about 300-320 miles.

The rating system is 0 stars to 5 stars but it really is 4 stars to 5 stars. Both apps kick you off if you drop below 4.5 or so for too long a time. A 4.5 driver or a 4.5 passenger is basically the worst person in the world.

Both companies insure you while you drive (going to a pickup or driving a passenger). If you have the app on but aren't heading for a pickup or have a passenger then you're back on your own insurance. It doesn't affect your normal insurance for the most part, though I probably do drive more miles under my own insurance so my rates may go up some when they see that.

You keep all of your tips, though of course lyft and uber keeps track of that.

You get a mileage deduction at tax time = I believe 54.5 cents per mile. The apps keep track of your mileage for you. For reference, If I make $12k a year total that would be about 15000 miles for me, equaling a deduction of $8200 or so, so income taxes come to about 7%. (22% of $3800, divided by $12000). Add in gas, maintenance and self employment tax and it's about 37% total in taxes and expenses. I'm currently at the border between the 22 and 24% marginal income tax rate + the 7.5% FICA at my regular job so it's roughly comparable to a regular job paycheck at $18 -20 per hour, perhaps a dollar per hour less. (Please correct me if I did the math wrong - I didn't actually run the numbers until just now!)

In my area, lyft is mostly black, (probably 75/25), uber is almost all white (95/5). I accept every ride thrown my way and don't care where the area is. My ratio of lyft to uber rides is probably something like 8/5. I never expect tips (though I'm happy to get them!) I probably get a tip 1 out of 5 or 6 rides.

Has anyone done a runner?

I think you're looking at this the wrong way. No one is forcing anyone to drive for Uber or Lyft. They made a conscious decision to do this work vs another job. Presumably, they chose to do it because it was the best available opportunity. If there was a better one, they'd quit Uber and go do it.

Your argument that, 'If we had an economy based on actual production of goods, Lyft, Uber, etc. would never have made it as companies' is off the mark, IMO. You have to believe that over 1M Uber drivers in the US are too stoopid to take into account other costs (depreciation, wear and tear, higher insurance, etc.) beyond gas. I don't believe that for a second.

The gig economy is a good thing. If a company like Uber or Snag doesn't offer a compelling opportunity for workers vs their competition (which is essentially all other jobs available), no one will work for them. So, they'll either raise their 'pay' or go out of business.